THE BOMB

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1933, Page 7

THE BOMB

ITS USE IN WARFARE. “It. seems possible that too much attention has been paid at Geneva to • contriving restrictions for the aeroplane, and too little attention concentrated upon the real evil, which is | the bomb,” said the Times recently. ! “Why should not the bomb, for a start, ' he renounc ed solemn I v and absolutely i . - tv ivery .stale in the world, and its 'manufacture or use be regarded as an international crime? It is obvious, of course, that this prohibition could' be evaded, because the parts of aerial bombs could be separately made and secretly assembled, but an effective deterrent would certainly be the knowledge that the offending nation would render itself an outlaw and I>- , able, according to a new international j code, to reprisal from every other naj tion. In an ordinary international ; quarrel there must always be some . doubts as to which State was the aggressor and from which State the real provocation originally came. There would he no such difficulty of definition about the use. of aerial ' bombs. A nation employing them, if i they had been condemned by international agreement to rank with, the bomb of the anarchist as a dastardly and illegal weapon, would ipso facto constitute itself an outcast. Its neighbours and the other signatories of the Convention would have the right, if not the duty, to take action against it. The simpler the definition of what is prohibited, the better the chance of enforcing the prohibition. The evil thing is the air bomb, whether it be filled with high explosive or poison-gas. Cannot all countries unite to mak-o its prohibition absolute?”